Andrea's Office

Andrea and Jade at her work station located in Dr. Voth's office.

Yesterday Andrea and Jade picked me up and we went out to breakfast at Perkins. We had to run some errands before going back to Andrea's to make candles. One of our errands was to stop by Andrea's office (she took the day off yesterday to spend with Jade) to drop off some paperwork.

Chuck had an appointment with Dr. Voth yesterday afternoon and in preparation Andrea took a comprehensive medical history on Chuck, including all the medicines and treatments he has tried for his pain. It took a lot of work for Andrea and I to get Chuck to the doctor and we wanted to make sure we didn't forget or miss anything.

Dr. Voth said Chuck has three unrelated medical problems. First, is the back pain. The doctor reviewed all of Chuck's previous tests and recommended he have a new MRI of his back since it has been almost three years since the last one. Based on the previous MRI and his current symptoms, he thinks Chuck could probably benefit from back surgery. He also wants him to try cortisone shots again. He said the effectiveness really depends on the skill of the doctor administering them. He has a specific doctor in mind he wants him to see for the shots.

The second, and unrelated problem, is Chuck's knees. He wants to send him to an orthopedic doctor for a consult. The third problem is his asthma. He is recommending he get back to a respiratory specialist and on daily maintenance drugs rather than just relying on his emergency inhaler.

We only went to Dr. Voth for a consult. He is not our primary physican. Our insurance changed when Chuck went to work for Lynn Electric and our primary doctor of 14 years is no longer on the list of approved doctors for our insurance. Chuck is going to get a copy of all the doctors approved on our insurance plan. Andrea will take the list to Dr. Voth who will recommend a new primary doctor for us and then send him his written evaluation and recommendations . For now Chuck will stay on his usual pain medication.

Chuck is not real happy because he was basically told he needs a bunch more doctor appointments. An appointment with a primary, a surgeon and a respiratory specialist as well as, an MRI appointment. What happened to those old family doctors who could do everything?

I still have not scheduled my surgery. I would like to wait until Erica comes back from her trip on January 15. Also, it is very bad timing for me to be gone from my job with the change in administrations. I got a letter from Attorney General-elect Paul Morrison this week saying I was being "retained" in my current positon. Out of my department of slightly more than 20, about half were not "retained". Another person being gone 4-6 weeks would cause a real strain but I definately want to get it taken care of by February.

Chuck thinks I am simply making excuses to put off the inevitable. Andrea gave me a stern talk yesterday about how Chuck's pain is not pleasant but that my problem could kill me blah blah blah........When did these kids grow up to know so much? I told Chuck we were just going to consider this our "surgery" year and get everything fixed. My surgery alone will meet the deductible on our insurance so we can go hog-wild with medical procedures all year long!

I will write more later. As always, we can be e-mailed at chogan2@cox.net.